Jeff Bezos is the founder of the e-commerce behemoth Amazon.com. He is an American technology entrepreneur. He was born to Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jorgensen, and after his mother married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant, he was adopted. At his grandfather’s Texas ranch, he spent his summers laying pipes, vaccinating livestock, and repairing windmills. He graduated with honors from Miami Palmetto Senior High School and Princeton University with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked for firms such as Fitel, Bankers Trust, and D. E. Shaw & Co. in New York. At D. E. Shaw & Co., he became the company’s youngest Vice President. Despite his achievements, he opted to leave the finance industry. He established Amazon.com, an online book retailer, and later added features such as one-click buying, user reviews, and e-mail order verification. He expanded it to include clothing, CDs, toys, jewelry, watches, gadgets, and shoes, among other things. He is always upgrading his website and providing better services to his consumers. Blue Origin, an aerospace business that is developing technology to give space travel to clients, was founded as a result of his childhood goal of traveling to space. With a net worth of $28 billion, Bezos is one of the world’s wealthiest persons, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Childhood and Adolescence
On January 12, 1964, Jeff Bezos was born to Jacklyn Gise and Ted Jorgensen. His mother’s grandparents were Texas settlers who had amassed a 25,000-acre ranch in Cotulla over several generations.
When Bezos’ mother married his father, she was a teenager. She married Miguel Bezos, a Cuban immigrant who studied at the University of Albuquerque, when her marriage to Ted Jorgensen ended.
Miguel Bezos legally adopted Jeff after their marriage. The family then relocated to Houston, Texas, where Miguel worked for Exxon as an engineer. From fourth to sixth grade, Jeff attended River Oaks Elementary School in Houston.
Career of Jeff Bezos
The family of Jeff Bezos relocated to Miami, Florida. He was a student at Miami Palmetto Senior High School in Miami, Florida. He also attended the University of Florida’s Student Science Training Program, where he got a Silver Knight Award in 1982.
He founded the Dream Institute, an educational summer program for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, while still in high school. He was the valedictorian of his high school class.
He enrolled at Princeton University in 1982 to study computers. At Princeton, he was inducted into the honor societies Phi Beta Kappa and Tau Beta Pi.
He used to work part-time throughout the summer. He worked as a Programmer/Analyst in Norway during the summer of 1984, and the following year, he upgraded an IBM program in California.
He was the President of the Students for the Exploration and Development of Space at Princeton University. He received his B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1986, summa cum laude.
Following graduation, he worked for a number of Wall Street firms, including Fitel Bankers Trust and D.E. Shaw.
In 1990, he joined D. E. Shaw & Co. in New York. He was elected as the country’s youngest Vice President. His financial career was successful, but he opted to leave after four years.
He created Amazon.com, an online bookshop, in 1995. Market observers were skeptical of its viability in comparison to traditional stores at first, but he quickly overtook his competition. The company went public in 1997.
Amazon began to diversify its assets over time. It began selling CDs and films in 1998, and in 2002, it expanded its product line to include clothing.
Amazon launched A9, a commercial search engine focused on e-commerce websites, in 2003. He also opened an online sporting goods store with up to 3,000 brands to choose from.
Amazon introduced the Kindle, a handheld electronic reading device that uses E-Ink to generate text with customizable font size for convenience of reading, in 2007.
In 2010, Amazon reached an agreement with The Wylie Agency, which granted Amazon digital rights to authors’ works. Publishers were enraged because they were bypassed. Readership and sales, on the other hand, grew, benefiting authors.
Bezos launched the Kindle Fire, a color touch screen tiny tablet computer that competes with Apple’s iPad. Amazon brought e-readers comfort and convenience with the Kindle Paperwhite, which had lit touchscreens that allowed reading in the dark.
Aside from Amazon Local, LivingSocial, and Amazon Web Services, he established Amazon Studios. Amazon intends to broadcast the television shows via its internet video service.
He bought The Washington Post and other magazines linked with The Washington Post Co. for $250 million in cash on August 5, 2013, bringing the Graham family’s four-generation reign to an end.
Bezos announced an experimental program dubbed Amazon Prime Air in December 2013 that uses drones capable of carrying up to 5 pounds and traveling up to 10 miles to provide delivery services to consumers.
Major Projects of Jeff Bezos
Bezos was a pivotal figure in the development and expansion of e-commerce. In 1995, he started Amazon.com, an online bookstore. By providing unique features like as one-click shopping, user evaluations, and e-mail order verification, the company has ushered in a revolution in online shopping.
He launched Blue Origin, an aerospace business that is developing technology to provide clients with space flight, in 2004 and kept it a secret until property was bought for a launch and test facility.
Achievements & Awards
In 2008, Carnegie Mellon University bestowed upon Bezos an honorary doctorate in Science and Technology. He was also named one of America’s best leaders by U.S. News & World Report.
For the Amazon Kindle, Bezos and Gregg Zehr received an Innovation Award from The Economist in 2011. Fortune honored him Businessperson of the Year the following year.
The National Retail Federation recognized Amazon the top retailer of the year in December 2012, and presented him with the Gold Medal Award, which is granted to an individual who has distinguished themselves in the sector.
Personal & Family Life
In 1993, Jeff Bezos married MacKenzie Tuttle. He met her while working at D.E. Shaw, an investing business. They have four children together. Bezos and MacKenzie announced their intention to divorce on January 9, 2019. They had been living apart for a long period, according to the couple.
Lauren Sanchez, a former new anchor, TV show host, and helicopter pilot, is said to be dating the founder of Amazon.com.
Bezos is one of the world’s wealthiest persons, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. He was named the world’s second best CEO by Harvard Business Review.
Estimated Net Worth
Jeff Bezos has a net worth of $200 billion.
Trivia
In July 2013, this pioneer supported an expedition that retrieved two powerful Saturn V first-stage F-1 rocket engines from the Atlantic Ocean, which were recognized as belonging to the S-1C stage of the Apollo 11 mission.